Posts tagged networking

Google Fiber has a few inroads into less fortunate homes, such as its not-quite-free 5Mbps service, but it's still largely aimed at more affluent households. That's going to change very shortly, however: the White House has revealed ConnectHome, an effort that will bring free or inexpensive ($10...

WiFi-equipped gadgets don't really say anything to each other before they connect, which limits what they can do -- you can't use them as Bluetooth-like smart beacons, or quickly find who's sharing photos. All that's going to change soon, though, thanks to the newly unveiled WiFi Aware spec. The...

Are you determined to trump your Google Fiber-toting friends by signing up for Comcast's 2Gbps Gigabit Pro service? You'd better have deep pockets. The telecom has revealed pricing for its multi-gigabit data tier, and it'll cost you up to an eye-watering $299 per month. Comcast is testing a mor...

As good as Google's Chromecast is at putting streaming video on a big screen, its dependence on WiFi can be a problem -- just ask anyone who's struggled to play YouTube on a barely-connected basement TV. Thank goodness Google has just rolled out a Chromecast Ethernet adapter, then. It's really a g...

We really, really hope you didn't have to take a United Airlines flight this morning. The air carrier temporarily grounded all its flights due to a networking glitch that created "automation issues" across its fleet. United started returning things to normal around 9:20AM Eastern (initially for re...

The FCC made it clear that towns should have the freedom to build their own broadband services, and one cooperative group is determined to take advantage of that liberty. WiredWest has gained the support of 22 Massachusetts towns for a municipal broadband effort that will give them all fiber optic...

When you think of internet security from Cisco, you probably imagine firewalls and routers (usually) stopping hackers and malware from hitting your network. You're going to have to expand that definition very shortly, though. Cisco has snapped up OpenDNS, whose domain name services you might hav...

When Google unveiled its urban improvement initiative, Sidewalk Labs, it left one big question: what was this new outfit actually working on? As of today, you should have a good idea. Sidewalk and a group of investors have bought and merged two key companies behind LinkNYC, an effort to offer free...

Opera's data compression was originally meant to get the most out of thimble-sized cellular plans, but you'd probably agree that WiFi matters, too. After all, you've likely had that moment when you were struggling to visit websites on a lousy public hotspot. Mercifully, relief is in sight: an upda...

The internet has more than one capacity problem to worry about, apparently. Researchers met in London this week to tackle growing concerns that fiber optic cables, which represent the internet's backbone, are hitting their physical limits. An Alcatel-Lucent representative warned that we could hi...

The conventional internet address is about to go the way of the dodo... at least, in the US and Canada. According to estimates, North America will run out of IPv4 addresses (the familiar 1.2.3.4 format) this summer. While some companies might stall this by letting go of IPv4 numbers they don't use...

It's clearer than ever that the US telecom establishment really, really doesn't like the FCC's new net neutrality regulation. AT&amp;T and multiple industry groups (all from cable and phone businesses) have filed lawsuits trying to kill the new utility-like rules, claiming that they violate everyt...